Studies on Some Physico-Chemical and Microbiological Characteristics of Potable Water Used in Some Rural Areas of Surat District (Gujarat)

Abstract

A physico chemical and microbiological study of the ground water of some villages of Surat district of Gujarat state (India) has been made. Physico chemical parameters such as colour, odour, taste, temperature, pH, electrical conductivity, TS, TDS, total hardness, total alkalinity, calcium, magnesium, iron, sodium, potassium, chloride, sulphate, nitrate, fluoride and silica were determined. In microbiological study, total coliforms, E. coli, sulfate reducing anaerobic bacteria, pseudomonas aeruginosa, yeast and mould were investigated. Samples were taken from ten sampling points in ten different villages viz. Parvat(S-1), Kharvasa(S-2), Bonand(S-3), Vesu(S-4) Amroli(S-5), Kadodara(S-6), Chalthan(S-7), Variyav(S-8), Gaviyar(S-9) and Bhairav(S-10). Samples were taken four times in year in the month of May, August, November and February to check the seasonal effects. In village Gaviyar, Gujarat Water Supply and Sewerage Board has set up a treatment plant to supply good quality potable water in few surrounding coastal villages. In all other cases samples were taken from bore-well. Here study reported is for samples taken in May-2004 and August-2004.For colour, iron, sulphate, nitrate, fluoride and silica, instrumental methods like spectrophotometry were used. “Hach-Odyssey spectrophotometer” which has facility to store calibration curves and which can display the value for that parameter directly was used. In present study programmes of “Hach” with their reagents were used while some programmes were prepared by us using our reagents. This is an excellent instrument and results of this instrument are validated by USEPA. Sodium and potassium was determined using flame photometer. It was found that some water samples have higher TDS, chlorides, total hardness and total alkalinity than the permissible limits. In all cases samples were not found to contain significant quantities of bacteria and water was palatable from this point of view.